The Iraqi militia has already given up hopes of receiving the drones from the international coalition and has instead turned to the off the shelf drones in an attempt to monitor the progress and presence of ISIS.
Although these off-the-shelf drones seldom make it past 40 minutes in the air, this time is enough to mark the location of the potential targets to improve the accuracy of an airstrike. The most commonly used drone is the DJI phantom 3 and DJI phantom 4.
The Shia militia is using the same drones. However, they also have access to military drones via Iran. These efforts are an attempt to regain the control of the territory by the Iraqi government.
The downside of this use of drones is that they have been utilized by the militia to target the civilian areas. ISIS is putting these drones to an even more frightening use: fixing explosives on the drones and flying these explosives to the potential targets. Previously it was reported that ISIS has been using GoPros and drones to record their terrorist activities.
Drones will play a significant role in determining the outcome of this war.
